Amid Italian crisis, Roman priests urged to support housing fund

The request comes amid growing financial hardship in the Diocese of Rome

The cardinal vicar of Rome has asked diocesan clergy to donate one month’s salary towards a diocesan housing program as a “sign of hope” amid an escalating housing emergency in the Italian capital city.

It is unclear how local priests will respond to the invitation, especially as the request comes amid financial hardship for the Diocese of Rome, and tensions among local clergy following a year of upheaval and transition in the diocese.

Cardinal Baldo Reina, cardinal vicar of the Diocese of Rome. Credit: Vatican Media.

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Cardinal Baldo Reina made the request in a Feb. 26 letter to Roman clergy, which “invited” them to “contribute one month's worth of the financial support we receive,” to the Don Roberto Sardelli Fund, a diocesan housing initiative which gives grants to families unable to afford housing.

While suggesting the donation of a month’s remuneration, Reina told the diocesan clergy that they could elect a different amount “always with freedom of choice, based on how much each of you wishes to donate.”

Reina noted that Pope Francis had already given one million euros to the fund — in addition to Peter’s Pence, which collects voluntary donations from around the world to support the ministry of the Roman Pontiff, the pope maintains funds for private charitable contributions, presumably funded by book royalties and other sources of personal income.

The letter, first reported by Italian website Silere Non Possum, said that priests of the diocese have noted a “housing emergency” in the Italian capital city, and the diocese has urged civic officials to address it.

On that issue, Reina urged clergy to put their money where their mouths are: “If we have raised our voices, I believe it is important to make a prophetic gesture, capable of giving greater credibility to what we have said,” the cardinal wrote.

That prophetic gesture, he said, could be a “sign of hope” — for priests to contribute their monthly pay to a housing fund, and especially one named for Fr. Roberto Sardeilli, a deceased local priest known to have loved the poor.

Sardelli was a Roman diocesan priest assigned to work in the 1970s in the parish of St. Polycarp. While in ministry there, he became convicted about the plight of residents in a nearby shanty town, in which lived more than 600 families coming mostly from southern Italy.

Sardelli decided to live in one of the shacks, where he taught children who did not attend school. He eventually wrote a letter to the mayor of Rome, which led the municipality to provide public housing to the community in 1974.

Sardelli died in 2019, and the social housing program of Caritas of Rome was named after him.

Since his death, homelessness has continued to grow across Italy. In Rome, where more than 22,000 people live without housing, the problem has become acute in recent years, especially as more than 5.4 million Italians now live in “absolute poverty” — nearly 10 percent of the country’s population.

Civic officials in Rome have attempted to address the issue, approving last spring a 3.4 million euro initiative to provide four large tented shelters across the city for homeless people. While the city aimed — but did not succeed — to have all four tent shelters in operation before the Church’s jubilee year began, critics of the program suggested it was an attempt to make homelessness less visible to tourists and pilgrims, but not to address the problem permanently.

Church officials in Italy have urged city governments to provide more long-term housing solutions, and directed Caritas funds to that purpose.

For his part, Reina suggested to priests last month that it would be a “sign of hope” for priests to make donations to Sardelli’s fund “intended for this purpose: to support families who do not have the necessary guarantees to access a lease or those who are unable to pay [their]…rent.”

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Reina’s letter comes amid tension among Rome’s presbyterate, with priests raising concern in recent months over financial issues in the diocese, and a revolving door of bishops over the past year.

In light of that tension — which has seen priests skip meetings with diocesan officials and with the pope — it is not clear whether an invitation to forego a month’s salary will be well received, especially as some priests have expressed concern about the diocese’s ability to provide for their expenses over the next few decades.

Priests in the former city center vicariate, for example, were divided for nearly a year, with auxiliary bishop Daniele Libanori, SJ allegedly accusing some priests of the vicariate in March 2024 of “carrying out a battle against him.”

The press office of the Diocese of Rome published a statement in support of Libanori, signed by the “priests of the historic center sector.”

However, priests of the historic center published another statement denying they drafted or approved the initial statement.

The pope abolished the historic center sector of the Diocese of Rome on October 1, 2024.

That decision was reportedly met with confusion among the Roman clergy as they only found out about it a few days before it was made public. One priest told local media that “it is paradoxical that the Synod on Synodality should open just at this time. I wonder where synodality is.”

Moreover, in the last year, the Diocese of Rome has become something an episcopal revolving door with five auxiliaries and its vicar, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, leaving the diocese.

While De Donatis is often seen as a high-profile defender of disgraced former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik, the cardinal remained a popular figure among local priests and his departure in April last year was not well received by parts of the Roman clergy.

In an April 8, 2024 meeting, priests complained to the pope about the way his departure had been announced, and about the fact that the customary farewell Mass held for all outgoing cardinal vicars of Rome would not take place for De Donatis.

Moreover, both the Vicariate of Rome and the Vatican are experiencing significant financial difficulties, raising questions about whether a one million euro donation from the pope is a prudent decision, especially given the Vatican’s nearly 100 million euro budget deficit.

Local outlets have reported that the Vicariate of Rome has rented out diocesan properties for below market price rates to private entities.

For example, the diocese leased the Cloisters of Bramante, a Renaissance Building used for art expositions, to a private entity.

The rental contract indicated that the property should not be used for long-term housing. However, a report indicated that the renting entity offers long-term stays in the property at hefty prices.

In 2022, the secretariat of the Vicariate of Rome commissioned a report on the property, which highlighted that the diocese could generate annual rental fees between 950,000 euros and 1.2 million euros, rather than the 373,000 euros it was then receiving. But the Vicariate of Rome took no further action.

A similar situation has allegedly occurred in properties rented out to entrepreneurs who have worked in projects of the vicariate. According to some reports, Dario Di Domenico, a Roman businessman, rented a property owned by the Vicariate for 3,600 euros, while the market price sat at 5,500 euros.

The Vicariate of Rome also sold a property to the same businessman below market price with an interest-free mortgage and 40 quarterly installments.